What does the pledge mean? 

In its manifesto Labour said it would “establish a National Wealth Fund”. As we’ve explained elsewhere, this was achieved in October 2024.

The manifesto also said £7.3 billion of capital would be allocated to the fund over the course of the parliament, consisting of:

• £1.8 billion to upgrade ports and build supply chains across the UK
• £1.5 billion to new gigafactories
• £2.5 billion to rebuild the UK steel industry
• £1 billion to accelerate the deployment of carbon capture technologies
• £500 million to support the manufacturing of green hydrogen.

What progress has been made?

The government has now said it won’t allocate the full £7.3 billion to the National Wealth Fund (NWF) in this parliament, but the remainder will be invested in projects in these sectors through other avenues. On a literal reading of the manifesto, therefore, we are currently rating this pledge as “not kept”.

In a policy paper published on 14 October 2024 announcing the formal establishment of the NWF, the government confirmed that it would inherit the UK Investment Bank’s £22 billion of capital, and also receive an additional £5.8 billion over the course of this parliament.

The government said the remaining £1.5 billion of the £7.3 billion set out in its manifesto would be “reserved to maintain flexibility in how the government can best deliver against its aims for the NWF”.

In the June 2025 Spending Review, the government confirmed that plan, by allocating £5.8 billion to the NWF over the course of the parliament.

This leaves approximately one-fifth of the total sum specified in Labour’s manifesto not allocated to the NWF under the government’s current spending plans. However, the government has said this sum will still be spent on projects in this parliament.